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Thursday, September 27, 2012

PEACE WITH GOD ENCOURAGES SELF-DENIAL

"There is no other key like love to open the heart.

Self-denial is a grace so necessary to suffering that Christ lays the
whole weight of the cross on its back: "Whosoever will come after me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me" Mark 8:34. Some
Christians, like Simon of Cyrene, may be compelled to carry Christ's cross
after him only a short way. But the self-denying saint will stoop to his knees
and wait for Christ to lay this burden on him. Now there are two ways that
peace with God empowers the Christian in the kin of self-denial, which prepares
him for suffering.

Sin may well be called self because it cleaves as close to us as our
human body. It is as hard to mortify a lust as it is to cut off an arm or leg.
Yet when Christ and the Christian feast together with the "hidden
manna" of pardon and peace, he can ask for the head of the proudest lust
of all, and take it with less regret on the part of the saint than Herodias
felt as she demanded the head of John the Baptist.

There is no other key like love to open the heart. When love knocks at
the door and expresses kindness, there is little reason to fear rejection.
Esther, for example, persuaded her husband's heart against Haman her enemy as
she showed strong love to Ahasuerus at a banquet. And God demonstrates His love
to Christians each time He entertains at the feast of His Gospel. Surely this
is the time He prevails with His children to send the cursed Amalekite to the
gallows-- that is, lust to its execution.

After Jesus' blessed words of forgiveness fell into Mary Magdalene's
heart, do you think she could have been persuaded to leave the embraces of His
love and open the door to any of her former lovers and to whoredom again? She
would have chosen martyrdom first! That one love, which makes the saint deny a
lust causes him not to deny a cross.”